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CUBA
NEWS
The
Miami Herald
Six Cubans convicted in plane hijacking
Associated Press. Posted
on Thu, Dec. 11, 2003
KEY WEST, Fla. - Six Cuban men were convicted
Thursday in the hijacking of a passenger
plane from the communist island to Key West
in the first of a series of plane and boat
takeovers and face possible life sentences.
Some of the men sat passively when the
verdict was read. One of the men bowed his
head and the eyes of another man filled
with tears. Air piracy charges carry a mandatory
20-year prison sentence and possible life
terms.
"Our clients are extremely heartbroken
and disappointed but they still have faith
in the system and that the appellate process
will carry them through," defense attorney
Mario Cano said. Prosecutors planned a news
conference later in the day.
The DC-3's pilot testified that a knife
was held to his throat after hijackers broke
down the cockpit door and rerouted the Cuban
domestic flight to the United States with
37 people aboard March 19. Fourteen people
besides the hijackers opted to stay.
Two brothers on trial testified that the
takeover was a staged "freedom flight"
that allowed cooperative crew members to
return home without suspicion. Prosecutor
Harry Wallace called the explanation "laughable"
and denied the trial was about Cuba, Fidel
Castro or communism.
Following other hijackings from March to
July, a skyjacker is serving a 20-year sentence,
three boat hijackers were executed in Cuba,
and the United States returned other boat
hijacking suspects to Cuba on the condition
that no one would be executed.
The defense fractured during the trial
when ringleader Alexis Norneilla Morales
and his brother Miakel Guerra Morales testified
that everyone on board was in on a plot
to stage the hijacking with five knives
used only as props.
Three other defendants were banking on
arguments that prosecutors didn't have enough
proof to tie them to a crime after their
confessions were thrown out because FBI
agents hadn't told them they had the right
to remain silent. The three were Neudis
Infantes Hernandez, Alvenis Arias Izquierdo
and Yanier Olivares Samon.
The five plus Eduardo Mejia Morales were
charged with hijacking, crew interference
and two counts of conspiracy. Conviction
on any of the counts carried a possible
life sentence.
Norniella, Guerra and Infantes were convicted
on all four counts. Arias was found guilty
on the air piracy charge and innocent on
the three other counts.
Mejia and Samon were found guilty of three
of the charges and innocent on the charge
of interfering and assaulting a flight crew.
Family members stood somberly outside the
courthouse following the verdict and some
cried.
Angel Norneilla Morales, a brother of two
of the men convicted, said he was "destroyed"
by the verdicts.
"I'm in a state that I can't talk
about it right now. There are many things
that I can say. I'm so emotional,"
Norneilla said.
Emma Lopez, the wife of Eduardo Mejia Morales,
sobbed on a white picket fence across courthouse
with her head in hands, surrounded by reporters.
"He's innocent and he's locked up
here unjustly," she said.
Lopez accused Castro of orchestrating the
guilty verdicts by not allowing attorneys
to interview potential defense witnesses
in Cuba and not allowing lawyers to see
the defendants' homes to see the conditions
they live in. The Cuban leader had personally
greeted the returning passengers and crew.
Jurors informed U.S. District Judge James
Lawrence King that they had reached a verdict
just as the judge was denying a defense
motion seeking a mistrial after one of the
jurors attempted to shake a prosecutor's
hand.
Federal prosecutors pressed the case amid
criticism from Cuba's president that the
United States was soft on Cuban hijackers.
The Cuban government cooperated with U.S.
investigators and blocked defense efforts
to explore the Cuban portion of the flight.
After the verdict, King granted a defense
motion for an extension to the normal seven-day
period for filing a motion for a new trial.
Sentencing is set for Feb. 26 at the federal
courthouse in Miami.
Related:
Witness calls Cuban
hijack a sham
Hijacking
or 'freedom flight'?
Both sides hobbled in Key West hijacking trial
U.S. policy, Cubans on trial
Hijacking trial may test Cuba's accusations of U.S. leniency
Defense attorneys accuse Castro of manipulating hijacking trial witnesses
Cuba's defiance upsets defense
Wives of dissidents fast to mark U.N.
rights day
HAVANA - A dozen wives of dissidents jailed
in a crackdown this year held a 12-hour
fasting and prayer session Wednesday to
seek their husbands' release as they marked
U.N. Human Rights Day.
''This fast is for the liberty of the political
prisoners and for the well-being of the
Cuban nation,'' said Gisela Delgado, wife
of imprisoned opposition party leader Héctor
Palacios. Delgado, who hosted the session
in her home, read from the Bible's Book
of Psalms during the gathering.
Palacios, among 75 activists imprisoned
in a March crackdown, is serving 25 years
for working with U.S. diplomats to undermine
the Cuban system -- charges he and many
of the other dissidents deny.
Similar sessions of fasting and prayer
were being held by prisoners in the western
city of Pinar del Río and the eastern
city of Guantánamo, Delgado said.
Supporters of the prisoners were doing the
same in other provinces around the island,
she said.
The United Nations General Assembly observes
Human Rights Day on Dec. 10, the anniversary
of its 1948 adoption of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights, a fundamental document
outlining minimal rights for all people.
Copilot refutes link to Cuban hijack
plot
Lead defendants in the alleged hijacking
of a domestic Cuban flight say they were
pawns in the plot designed by Gustavo Salas
Cleger, who claims not to know the men.
By Cara Buckley, cbuckley@herald.com.
Posted on Tue, Dec. 09, 2003 in The Miami
Herald.
KEY WEST - The defendants' faces were impassive,
their eyes downcast as the man they said
played them as pawns in a hijacking plot
told a federal court Monday that he did
not know any of them and never discussed
with them any skyjacking plans.
The witness, Gustavo Salas Cleger, copiloted
a domestic Cuban DC-3 flight that was diverted
to Key West on March 19. Salas, who still
lives in Cuba, testified Monday in the sixth
day of the trial of six Cuban men accused
of forcibly overtaking the plane using kitchen
knives, packing tape and string. No one
aboard the 37-person flight was injured,
though each of the accused men faces up
to life imprisonment if convicted of air
piracy and conspiracy.
In earlier testimony, the lead defendant,
Alexis Norneilla Morales, said Salas and
an airport security guard sought him out
last year and presented detailed plans to
stage a hijacking. At the two men's instructions,
Norneilla said, he recruited family members
and friends, and was furnished with knives
by the airport security guard to ''put on
a show'' of hijacking with the understanding
that they would be able to live freely in
the United States.
But Salas, testifying for the prosecution
and seated an arm's length from Norneilla,
said Monday that he had never met or spoken
with Norneilla or any of the defendants
prior to the March 19 incident.
''I never saw any of them,'' Salas said.
Corroborating the testimony from the flight's
pilot, who took the stand last week, Salas
said Norneilla warned them during the flight
that women and children were under the hijackers'
control, held a knife to the pilot's throat
and thwarted the pilots from broadcasting
radio transmissions.
Norneilla told the court last week that
he never used a knife and kidded around
with the pilot and co-pilot, who he said
he believed were in on the plan. The pilot
still lives in Cuba, as does the security
guard, who is not expected to testify.
The defense's six lawyers rested their
case Monday before noon. Salas was called
as a rebuttal witness for the prosecution,
and will be cross-examined today.
Judicial Watch sues federal agents over
raid where they seized Elián Gonzalez
By Elaine De Valle, edevalle@herald.com.
Posted on Tue, Dec. 09, 2003
Comparing the pre-dawn federal raid three
years ago on Elián Gonzalez's home
to the repressive tactics used by the Cuban
government, lawyers for the boy's Miami
relatives have sued the agents who burst
into their Little Havana house on April
22, 2000.
The motion claims that six ''violent and
heavily armed'' U.S. immigration agents
illegally broke into the family's home and
violated their rights against unlawful search
and seizure.
This is the third time Judicial Watch has
sued the federal government over the raid.
Federal courts threw out both of the previous
suits.
Elián, was 5 when he was found alone
clinging to an innertube off the Florida
coast on Thanksgiving Day, 1999. His mother
and 11 others died when their 17-foot aluminum
boat capsized.
He was released to his Miami cousin and
great uncle, who wanted to keep him in the
U.S. But the boy's father in Cuba demanded
his return and came to the U.S. to get him.
After the raid, Elián was reunited
with his father and they returned to Cuba.
Violations up among travelers to Cuba
The United States is getting tougher
on enforcing the travel ban to Cuba. In
the last two months, many more violations
have been discovered than in the past.
By Nancy San Martin, nsanmartin@herald.com
Posted on Thu, Dec. 11, 2003.
In the two months since President Bush
announced tougher enforcement of the U.S.
travel ban to Cuba, authorities have inspected
about 54,000 travelers and detected 600
violations, up from just 10 violations during
the same period last year, a senior U.S.
official said Wednesday.
''We do not believe the law ought to be
flouted,'' Asa Hutchinson, undersecretary
for Border and Transportation Security at
the Department of Homeland Security, said
at the University of Miami's Institute for
Cuban and Cuban-American Studies.
The increased enforcement was ordered by
Bush on Oct. 10 as part of enhanced initiatives
to strengthen the four decades-old embargo
on Cuba, which includes travel restrictions.
''The embargo is important to make sure
we keep the pressure on the corrupt regime,''
Hutchinson said. "We have a responsibility
to enforce the law and that's what we intend
to do.''
Over the past 60 days, authorities examined
a total of 971 flights. Of the 600 violations
detected, more than 400 came from passengers
on inbound flights. Most of the violations
were committed by passengers arriving from
Cuba with alcohol and tobacco products.
Others did not have the travel licenses
required by U.S. law.
The majority of violations on the outbound
flights were for passengers who also did
not have proper travel licenses. Authorities
also targeted passengers who were carrying
cash to Cuba above the $100 a day limit
allowed under U.S. law for authorized travelers.
Hutchinson said officials are looking at
ways to better detect those travelers using
third countries to circumvent the travel
ban. Authorities at the Treasury Department
also are more closely scrutinizing the applications
of those seeking travel licenses to Cuba,
Hutchinson said.
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